What were you doing on Saturday night? Me? I was doing a gig at the Builders Arms in New Barnet with my band, The False Dots. For me, live music is like oxygen. It keeps you alive. You may not be technically dead if you don't get your fill of live music, but what is life with no fun and for me, there is no better form of fun than watching a great band live. Best live gigs I've seen? The Ramones, The Dickies, The Specials, Toots and The Maytells, The Family Stone, Chic, Smokey Robinson, Wire, The Potato five, Madness, The Beat, 999, The Vibrators, to name but a few off the of my head. Having seen gigs from both sides of the microphone, why do I love live music so much?
Saturday night was the 121'st gig I've done with the band in a career spanning 46 years, so you may wonder if I've got sick of doing gigs yet? The simple answer is that I've actually never really enjoyed doing gigs as much as I am right now. When we started as teenagers in the 1970's, it was brilliant, but we were filled with testosterone, angst and chemical additives and we were mostly unable to really enjoy the moment. We were too busy wondering whether record labels had shown up to sign us, whether the girls we liked thought we were good and often we were in no fit state to appreciate the moment. Some of the gigs were brilliant and I have great memories of the era, but there are few moments when we were playing that I really remember enjoying. Two that stand out were when we played Dingwalls in 1984. We were really at the top of our game and when you are playing a proper venue and the whole place roars at the end of your final song it is a massive buzz. We knew the industry were there and so the band were on our best behaviour and we knew we'd smashed it. The other gig that stands out was when we played Pub Bastun in Aland in 1982, a Finnish protectorate in the Baltic sea. The audience went wild and were dancing on tables. There were no industry there, we were just playing to enjoy ourselves and clowning around, having fun. I think that gig was us at our very best and it took me a long time to recognise that this was how we should treat gigs. In truth, I was far too uptight about music in the first incarnation of the False Dots from 1979-1990.
When we got back together in 2000, it was initially just to 'record the old numbers for posterity'. Our bassplayer Paul Hircombe was reluctant. he didn't really want the intense stress and pressure that the band had been. He just wanted to enjoy his music. I'd changed and we started playing. Unlike the first incarnation, the aim wasn't a deal and mega fame, it was just to enjoy playing our music.
It took us a couple of years to gig, mostly because we were not that motivated. When we did, it was amazing. What was odd was that we'd not really planned to gig at all. The death of Ernie Ferebee and the organisation of a benefit gig for him spurred us. The set was all old material. It hadn't even occurred to me to write new stuff. The reaction blew us away. We spent a nearly a decade plodding along doing a couple of local gigs a year. I wrote a few new tunes, which TBH weren't very good. Then Paul left the band and Connie Abbe joined. Connie should've been a superstar, she is one of the best vocalists I've ever seen and to work with her was a pleasure. She got a gig as a backing singer with an internationally famous rapper, playing at Barack Obama's inauguration. Sadly this left no time for us!
The band went into a mini hiatus, until the Friern Barnet Library campaign reached its climax and occupy needed a band to play the key handover party. I hurriedly reached out to our singer from 1985, Allen Ashley, who is also an author and poet and asked him if he could do a one off gig. We recruited former False Dots drummer Gray Ramsey on drums and Fil Ross on bass. To cut a lng story short, Allen stayed on until the pandemic. We did a selection of local gigs, which were fun.
The pandemic changed everything. We all re-evaluted ourselves to some degree. Gray lost his son to suicide in January 2021. Allen couldn't commit to rehearsals and I felt that it was vital to get Gray engaged with the band. I wanted to take the band right back to our early roots, playing a mixture of ska, punk and reggae. Not having a vocalist forced me to take up vocal duties. To make this work, I decided to write songs in the only style I can really pull off, and pay homage to the late, great Ian Dury. I started writing lyrics with the sole intention of trying to make Gray laugh. As to the musical structure, I realised that as my vocal style is so limited, the arrangement and structure had to be complimentary. This forced me to write better musical arrangements than I had for a very long time. I had no idea whether it would actually work. I had this fear that everyone would simple laugh at me and say "God, the singer is awful".
Our first gig, at the Mill Hill Music Festival, supporting Alan Warner at The Adam and Eve was a really stressful gigs for me. At the end, I was amazed at the response. The audience loved it. In the early days of the False Dots, after Pete Conway left, I used to sing a few songs and a couple of promoters had complimented my Dury-esque style, but I'd not taken them seriously and I didn't enjoy singing. Now I realise that this was a massive mistake. I was able to play the material I wanted in the way I wanted and people love it. We started working on an album. A chance conversation with Tom Hammond, a fellow Hadley FC fan, who plays trumpet, resulted in Tom joining the band in late 2023. Initially I asked Tom to play some trumpet on a couple of recordings. As soon as Tom started playing with us, it was clear that we had discovered the magic formula! As Tom can sing pretty well, we have also roped him in to do the vocals on some of the material that my voice doesn't suit. It has given us another string to the bow.
In this most recent line up, there have been bumps on the road. In 2023, I was told I needed surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland. This derailed a few plans. I had the operation in August 2023. We had a gig scheduled for The Dublin Castle in September. I asked the consultant if I should do it. He said "Well if you are mad you may want to". That was good enough for me! God help me, I am 62, why would anyone be so stupid? Because I believe music heals the soul. There really is no downside to great music. You just listen, dance and enjoy yourself. In sport, there are winners and losers. In love, there are broken hearts. If you go to see a live band, you will see something totally unique. The Universe is 14 billion years old and you are at a single moment that has never happened before and will never happen again. You are in the moment.
I believe that music heals the soul. When Gray was at his lowest following Daniels passing, we had a rehearsal. Afterwards Gray told me that it was the first moment since the awful tragedy that he had respite from the dark thoughts. That was when I realised we were on the right path. No one knows what is around the corner. On Saturday, we had an absolute blast. The venue was packed and everyone was having a hoot. In the Christian tradition, on judgement day, it is said we stand before St Peter and account for ourselves. When I am asked what I did with my life, I will say "I think I put a smile on a few people's faces and made their lives a little bit better for just a short time". On Saturday night a lovely young lady came up to me after we played. She said "I just wanted to thank you, I've been going through a rotten time recently. I saw that there was a free Ska night here, I've made a half of lager last all night, and had a brilliant time. Thank you so much". It was an affirmation that I needed.
I've expended a lot of words here, to say something really simple. I beleive that live music has the power to heal the soul that nothing else had. From the earliest days, when people sat around fires chanting, beating drums and dancing to the Builder Arms on Saturday night, we all need to feel happy. When I was an angry young man, I used to want to change the world. Now all I really want to do is put a smile on people's face. If I could save the world I would, but I'll have to settle for doing it one smile at a time. Anyway, here's a little clip of what we got up to.
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